Filler for Rosewood Tote?

[Stew Denton]

Hi All,

I have been working on restoring some old Stanley planes, these are for me to use, one as a gift for my son in law, and some to eventually to have grandkids to possibly inherit.

I have been out of pocket for a while due to a car wreck, and won't be able to work on the planes for a couple of weeks, probably, but do have a question.

What I have run into difficulty with is the totes and knobs. These are rosewood, and due to the age of the planes have dings, etc., from use over the decades. Up to now I have just sanded them enough to clean off the old finish and get them about smooth. I have not sanded them down to the point of sanding out the dings, as I don't want to reduce the size of the knobs and totes significantly.

After sanding them, I have sprayed them with spray lacquer and then waxed them with some Simonize car wax that I have had for probably 30 to 40 years. The wax is still good, but the problem I have is that the wax fills the low dings, and then when I buff it down with a soft cloth, the low dings stay "white" and don't buff out clear like the rest of the tote or knob.

The question is, is there some sort of wood filler that I can use to fill the small dings, or some sort of wax that won't leave white spots.

The totes and knobs have turned out beautifully except for this flaw.

Stew

[Bill White]

Don't use auto wax.
Johnson's paste wax, or some of the more expensive products like Renwax, etc.
Bill

[Jim Koepke]

The question is, is there some sort of wood filler that I can use to fill the small dings

I tend to save every scrap of wood and especially pieces from broken totes and knobs. Mixing rosewood sawdust with clear epoxy makes a great filler to fill cracks and dings.

In your case the problem would be that you would likely have to strip the handles/knobs and start fresh.

Most of the time I do not worry about dings, they are just a part of the history of the tool.

jtk

[Jim Matthews]

Mixing rosewood sawdust with clear epoxy makes a great filler to fill cracks and dings. jtk

+1 on this.
In an earlier work incarnation, I refinished African Blackwood (M'pingo) on woodwinds with this method.
You can also get acceptable results with sawdust and SuperGlue, if the glue is thin.

I would say that a perfectly polished handle is undesirable in a handtool.

If you intend to use it, a few dings and dents are hardly noticeable.

[george wilson]

Shellac sticks or lacquer sticks can do an excellent job of filling rosewood. They are available in sets of sticks in graduated wood colors. You get a small bladed shellac knife hot enough to melt a small blob of the stick and apply it to the ding or crack. Then file and sand it down to be flush. Finish over it. If you are careful with selecting the color,you can do an invisible repair. Especially on something as dark and mottled in color as Brazilian rosewood.

I believe you should use the shellac sticks under lacquer,to avoid melting the underlying stick when you spray lacquer over it. It's been a long time since I've used the sticks,and I could be wrong about which stick to use under lacquer.

Behlen used to sell these assortments,and probably still does.

[John Walkowiak]

You can use clear epoxy, no filler. Using it clear, it takes on the color of the surrounding wood, and ends up the same color. Give it a try! For waxing dark woods I use Watco Satin Wax, in the dark tone. It doesn't dry white and doesn't fingerprint. As stated above, any dark wax will work.

[Andre Packwood]

I have fixed a few broken totes where some wood was worn out from the joint because the planes were used with the broken tote. I used clear epoxy glue tinted with cocoa powder and the resulting glue lines are barely distinguishable from the original wood veins.
Andre